[MsMahealani]

*Background on Nicky: Male Pom, neutered, rescued, clearly abused, very poor dental health, serious behavioral problems, knee joint popping, roughly between 8-9 years old*

Ok...so my Pom, Nicky, has done this weird coughing/hacking thing since I've had him (6 yrs). I never took him to the vet for it because this whole time I thought it was just a hair ball or something non-serious....until now. About 2 weeks ago he was doing the coughing/hacking thing and the next thing I saw was him collapse to the ground, his legs went stiff and he rolled over on his side. He was not breathing. I panicked, started crying and yelling for my partner to help me, scooped Nicky up and shook him a little bit and patted his chest until he looked normal again. Needless to say, I was horrified. We weren't sure if he had something stuck in his throat or what in the world so we said that if it happened again, we'd know that there was definitely a problem and we'd take him to the vet. My partner stayed him with him that day and it hasn't happened since...until today. I let Nicky out of his crate and he got excited, as he usually does, and he started doing the coughing/hacking thing as I was leading him outside to potty and right there on the side of the hill, he crumbled to the ground and stopped breathing again. I freaked out, picked him up, shook him and put him back down on all fours. He stood there, a little wobbly, but he was "fine" again. He scampered off and went potty. I was crying and horrified yet again and ran inside to tell my partner. Needless to say, it's vet time....but until then, I'd like to know if anybody else has experienced an incident like this?

Thanks,
Mahealani